The Roman Catholic cruciform basilica is built in red brick under a composite gable roof covered with anthracite gray Dutch tiles. The roof of the transept intersects below the ridge line with the kinked roof of the nave. On the west side there is a westwork, above which a straight tower seems to taper, because the wall surface of the westwork merges into the buttresses of the tower at the front. The tower is topped by a constricted, four-sided spire covered with slates in a mesh cover. In the westwork under a three-light window, in a portico with a blunt pointed arch, is a double wooden door under a Tudor arch. On the east side, the church is closed by a seven-sided apse. In the axils of the apse and the nave, two single-storey, flat-covered extensions have been realized, with a chimney with a masonry decoration on the corner of one of them. The chimney on the corner of the other extension has disappeared. In the top gables of the transept large composite windows with twill arch. Parabolic frames, other composite frames and windows with a twill arch further down the facades. The fork traces in the parabolic windows and the traces of the composite frames are made of brick.
In the church, the nave and aisles are spanned by pressed groin vaults. Nave and aisles are separated by parabolic arches, the bays and aisles by pressed pointed arches. The vaults are made of yellow brick, the pillars, arches and corbels in geometric patterns of yellow, red and grey-brown brick. The same applies to the window frames and door frames of the interior. The wooden balcony and the doors in the westwork are designed in an Art Deco-related architectural style, as is the stained glass. The interior of the church is still complete. For example, the Stations of the Cross in mosaic from 1937, the confessionals, and the original tiled floor are still present. The altar, the baptismal font, the shared communion bench of sandstone and marble and most of the benches come from the Waterstaatkerk.
Valuation
The cruciform basilica is of general cultural, architectural-historical and urban planning importance:
- as an exponent of the building explosion of Catholic churches and presbyteries after the restoration of the episcopal hierarchy in 1853, which was particularly noticeable in Twente for decades.
- because of its iconic location in the bend of the Dorpsstraat
- because of the exuberant design of the interior, in which various style influences on a Jos. Cuyper's characteristic way are combined
- because of the intactness of the exterior and interior, with many original interior parts
Tags: ecclesiastical buildings,church,church and church part,religious buildings
Source: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands - License CC-0 (1.0)